[Sherman Logan]

In 1860 dollars the value of all the slaves was somewhere in the vicinity of $2B to $3B.

To put that into some perspective, the federal budget for 1860 totaled $60,000,000.

So the slaves were worth around 50x the federal budget. Which gives a good notion why the idea of compensated emancipation wouldn’t work. Except possibly very gradually.

[0.E.O]

Which gives a good notion why the idea of compensated emancipation wouldn’t work.

You overlook the fact that for compensated emancipation to work it required an interest on the part of Southerners to allow emancipation, compensated or otherwise. Such an interest did not exist.